No.. No….. No Flash …. Don’t kill the mood..!

Wedding photography is mostly done with the flash either directly or indirectly. This is true for most of the wedding events happening in the indoors where the available light is not there or it is very low. But there was an interesting but challenging demand by my client, where I was requested not to use the flash through out the function.

It was a ‘cocktail get together’ in the evening, following the mehandhi function in the afternoon. There were beautiful decorations and the entire hall, floor, ceiling and furniture were decorated in black & white. Surprisingly the dress code of the couple and the guest was also in black and white. Obviously, I also had attire matching the theme and the challenge is not that. Shooting the event with full of actions like dancing, cake cutting and partying without using the flash was not that easy. Imagine moving around with a tripod mounted camera on a dance floor in a dimmed light ambience.

Well ,in order to avoid the shift of colour and to match the theme black & white, I did decided to shoot in the black and white mode of my digital camera using high ISO settings – mostly in 800 or 1600. To my surprise the pictures were having minimum level of noise that of course revealed the mood of the event. The gentle blur in the pictures caused by the movement of the people and disco lights added the impact of action as well. The entire evening my flash took rest unusually.

I was there shooting for about three hours enjoying the mood and music not revealing myself as a photographer. Remember that part of the wedding photo book contained mostly black and white pictures

Did any of you have similar experience in your life?

- KL.Raja